Friday Facts: July 12, 2019

August 27: “Election Integrity: Facts, Fraud and Fiction,” is the Foundation’s August noon Policy Briefing Luncheon at the Georgian Club. The speaker is Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation. $35. Register here.

September 26: Mark your calendar for “Higher Ed Happy Hour,” a discussion on student loans and debt at No Mas Cantina in Atlanta, with keynote speaker Jenna Robinson, president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. Details to follow.

November 15: Early Bird registration is open for the 2019 Georgia Legislative Policy Forum, which takes place Friday, November 15, at the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly. The theme is “Wisdom, Justice, Mobility,” a play on Georgia’s motto: “Wisdom, Justice, Moderation.” Click here to register. Click here to view video coverage of previous events.

Quotes of note

“It saddens me that our country has come to this, where I, as a private citizen, cannot express my feelings. It angers me and it saddens me, but it sure as hell is not going to stop me. If you thought it would, you’ve got the wrong guy. In the next ten years, God willing, I will accomplish more to save this world than my critics will do even if they had forty lifetimes.” – Bernie Marcus, Home Depot co-founder

“Be not intimidated… nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.” – John Adams

Wondering what laws took effect July 1 in Georgia? Read the Foundation’s summary here.

Opportunity

Go South, young man: To illustrate how “poor” the South is, some detractors take per-capita income levels by state and compare them to the national average. “This is a flawed metric because it ignores the cost-adjusted standard of living,” according to Jonathan Williams and Skip Estes of the American Legislative Exchange Council. “Another pitfall is looking at levels of per-capita income while ignoring growth in income by state – a much more telling measure.” Source: The Hill

Define ‘good character’: For occupational licenses, states’ ambiguous statutes on character are hindering successful re-entry into society for former offenders. “As a result, our workforce is kept from being more prosperous and the cycle of recidivism continues as an inefficient use of taxpayers’ dollars,” writes Emison Kleider of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Population

World Population Day: July 11 has been celebrated as World Population Day since 1989, by U.N. declaration. The U.S. Census Bureau shows world population increased by more than 50% in the 32 years since it reached 5 billion in 1987 and stands at 7.58 billion people. But the Census Bureau predicts that annual population growth will be below 1% in 2020-2021 for the first time since 1950.

Education

Indebted: Much of the fault for rising higher-education costs lies at the feet of the U.S. Department of Education, Yuval Levin writes in National Review. “The subsidization of demand is done through student aid, which has been too open-ended and has risen with tuition, thereby creating upward pressure on costs. This leverage over funds has also given the Department of Education lots of informal power to drive policy through nudges and ‘suggestions’ in a variety of areas.”

Healthcare

Prescription drugs: A federal judge blocked a Trump administration rule that would require many drug manufacturers to disclose the list price of drugs in TV ads, declaring the Department of Health and Human Services had clearly exceeded its statutory authority. Concurring with the judge, a Wall Street Journal editorial opined: “Such transparency sounds innocuous, though in practice consumers learn nothing about their out-of-pocket costs after insurance.”

This month in the archives: In July 15 years ago, the Foundation published, “Olympian Task to Bury Urban Myth on Asthma.” It noted, “In fact, ozone did not decrease during the [1996] Olympics compared to the week before (July 12-18); the average of maximum daily levels was the same.”

A Reminder: Amazon Prime Day is July 15-16. If you shop the Prime Day bargains, please support our mission by directing an Amazon Smile donation our way. It costs you nothing and Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible Smile.Amazon.com purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. We hope you’ll choose the Georgia Public Policy Foundation for a great ROI.

Have a great weekend!

Kyle Wingfield and Benita Dodd

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